How to value yourself – July 2017

This is what I’ve observed. We act as per how we value ourselves. In trying to find a job, I found myself undervaluing and presenting myself in a more conservative, kept individual compared to the excited, keen worker I am.

“We cannot think of being acceptable to others until we have first proven acceptable to ourselves.”
― Malcolm X

Over the past few months, valuing myself is reflected on two things: pricing and presenting myself.

Pricing myself

I just recently published a list of services available on my Facebook page (*hint/wink*), and found myself pricing according to my experiences. As an amateur freelancer, I did what anyone else starting in the game did: I googled. The trick here was Googling what I thought was right and then adjusting it to suit myself. Thanks to: https://petapixel.com/2016/02/26/much-photographers-charge-2016/.

Presenting myself

Job interviews are scary. It’s all about confidence and fitting a job description – but also, going beyond the scope. How I sold myself was reflective of how I perceived myself. In the cases where I did not succeed, I was an individual with little experience and little confidence in myself. I did not get any negative feedback or big points of improvement, instead I got positive comments. Although they weren’t hugely constructive, any comment is a comment worth exploring.

Cheezy as it sounds, I found it was down to me building myself up to be who I actually am. Despite what people say, I think comparisons are occasionally healthy. They help give us benchmarks and on the other end give us targets to reach. Looking back, I should’ve compared myself now to myself before and then looked to see how I could progress further. Instead, I found myself thinking lowly of my stance in relation to the others around me, be it in the assessment centre or in the office in general.

TL;DR

If you do not value yourself then you are not going to reach anything close to what you dream.